MARTIN O'Neill had a hunch that Villa would be drawn to face Rapid Vienna in the Europa League play-offs for the second successive year

Villa will travel to the Gerhard Hanappi Stadium on Thursday, August 19, before the return leg a week later at Villa Park on August 26.

O'Neill's team were knocked out by an away goal from the Austrians a year ago after losing 1-0 away and 2-1 at home to draw 2-2 on aggregate.

And the Villa manager admits his team will again have their work cut out if they are to progress to the group stages of the competition.

“We kind of had the feeling beforehand that we would probably find ourselves drawn against Rapid Vienna again," said O'Neill.

"As proved to be the case last year, this will be a difficult assignment against difficult opposition.

“But we are looking forward to the game and, of course, we will try to do our best to qualify for the group stage. This won’t be easy as Rapid was as tough a draw as we could have encountered but we’ll be ready to go.”